Viscoelastic fluid response can increase the speed and efficiency of a free swimmer

Microorganisms navigate through complex environments such as biofilms and mucosal tissues and tracts. To understand the effect of a complex medium upon their locomotion, we investigate numerically the effect of fluid viscoelasticity on the dynamics of an undulating swimming sheet. First, we recover...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2010-01, Vol.104 (3), p.038101-038101, Article 038101
Main Authors: Teran, Joseph, Fauci, Lisa, Shelley, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Body Fluids - chemistry
Elasticity
Female
Kinetics
Male
Models, Biological
Movement - physiology
Rheology
Spermatozoa - physiology
Viscosity
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Summary:Microorganisms navigate through complex environments such as biofilms and mucosal tissues and tracts. To understand the effect of a complex medium upon their locomotion, we investigate numerically the effect of fluid viscoelasticity on the dynamics of an undulating swimming sheet. First, we recover recent small-amplitude results for infinite sheets that suggest that viscoelasticity impedes locomotion. We find the opposite result when simulating free swimmers with large tail undulations, with both velocity and mechanical efficiency peaking for Deborah numbers near one. We associate this with regions of highly stressed fluid aft of the undulating tail.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.104.038101